Editing Bathing (section)

====Hammam====
{{Main|Hammam}}
[[File:Ali Gholi Agha hammam, Isfahan, Iran.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Ali Gholi Agha hammam]], [[Isfahan]], Iran]]A [[hammam]]{{efn |{{langx|ar|حمّام|translit=ḥammām}}, {{langx|tr|hamam}} }} is a type of [[steam bath]] or a place of [[public bathing]] associated with the [[Islamic world]]. It is a prominent feature in the [[Islamic culture|culture of the Muslim world]] and was inherited from the model of the [[Culture of ancient Rome|Roman]] ''[[thermae]].''<ref name="Bloom">M. Bloom, Jonathan and S. Blair, Sheila, eds. (2009). 'Bath' In ''The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture''. (Oxford University Press.)</ref><ref name="Sibley">Sibley, Magda. ''The historic hammams of Damascus and Fez: lessons of sustainability and future developments''. The 23rd Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture.</ref><ref name="Marçais">Marçais, Georges (1954). ''L'architecture musulmane d'Occident''. (Paris: Arts et métiers graphiques)</ref> Muslim bathhouses or hammams were historically found across the [[Middle East]], [[North Africa]], [[al-Andalus]] (Islamic Spain and Portugal), [[Central Asia]], the [[Indian subcontinent]], and in [[Southeastern Europe]] under [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman rule]].

In Islamic cultures the significance of the hammam was both religious and civic: it provided for the needs of [[Ritual purification|ritual ablutions]] but also provided for general [[hygiene]] in an era before private plumbing and served other social functions such as offering a gendered meeting place for men and for women.<ref name="Bloom"/><ref name="Sibley" /><ref name="S-T">Sourdel-Thomine, J. and Louis, A. 'Ḥammām'. In Bearman, P. and others (eds.). ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' Second Edition. (Leiden: Brill, 2012).</ref> [[Archaeology|Archeological]] remains attest to the existence of bathhouses in the Islamic world as early as the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad period]] (7th–8th centuries) and their importance has persisted up to modern times.<ref name="Bloom"/><ref name="S-T"/> Their architecture evolved from the layout of Roman and [[Greek baths|Greek]] bathhouses and featured a regular sequence of rooms: an [[Apodyterium|undressing room]], a [[Frigidarium|cold room]], a [[Tepidarium|warm room]], and a [[Caldarium|hot room]]. Heat was produced by [[Furnace (house heating)|furnace]]s which provided hot water and [[steam]], while smoke and hot air was channeled through [[Hypocaust|conduits under the floor]].<ref name="Sibley" /><ref name="Marçais"/><ref name="S-T"/>

In a modern hammam visitors undress themselves, while retaining some sort of modesty garment or [[loincloth]], and proceed into progressively hotter rooms, inducing [[perspiration]]. They are then usually washed by male or female staff (matching the gender of the visitor) with the use of soap and vigorous rubbing, before ending by washing themselves in warm water.<ref name="S-T"/> Unlike in Roman or Greek baths, bathers usually wash themselves with running water instead of immersing themselves in standing water since this is a requirement of Islam,<ref name="Sibley" /> though immersion in a pool used to be customary in the hammams of some regions such as [[Iran]].<ref>Blake, Stephen P. 'Hamams in Mughal India and Safavid Iran: climate and culture in two early modern Islamic empires'. In Ergin, Nina (ed.). ''Bathing culture of Anatolian civilizations: architecture, history, and imagination''. (Leuven: Peeters, 2011). pp.257–266. ISBN 9789042924390.</ref> While hammams everywhere generally operate in fairly similar ways, there are some regional differences both in usage and architecture.<ref name="S-T"/>